No coercive steps against Bharti Singh in the case filed against her

Bharti Singh

After granting relief to Bollywood personalities Raveena Tandon and Farah Khan in a case relating to hurting religious sentiments of Christians, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday issued directions to not take any coercive steps against actor-comedian Bharti Singh. The trio was been booked by the Punjab Police for hurting religious sentiments.

Hearing the petition of Bharti Singh, who also sought quashing of the case and directions to the state against initiation of coercive action till the pendency of the petition, Justice Sudip Ahluwalia said her plea would come up for further hearing on March 25, along with the petition filed by Raveena and Farah.

Last month, Punjab Police registered two FIRs against actress Raveena Tandon, director-choreographer Farah Khan, and comedian Bharti Singh for allegedly hurting religious sentiments during a TV show.

The second case was registered in Ferozepur cantonment. Earlier, a case was registered in Ajnala town in Amritsar district on the complaint of Sonu Jafar, head of the Christian Front.

Jafar alleged that religious sentiments of Christians were hurt when the stars trivialised the word Hallelujah while trying to pronounce it. Hallelujah is a Hebrew word and a simple translation of it is Praise the Lord.

The counsel said that Bharti was accused of making a joke of a word and playing with religious sentiments of a particular community. He said she was a guest/participant in the show telecast on a digital platform. She sought the quashing of the FIR on the grounds that it was illegal.

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